Along with high energy and good vibes, one of the key elements of Orlando Rep. Maxwell Frost’s Come Out With Pride float is a live band. The Pheromones, an all-queer, woman-led Orlando band, are stepping up to the mic for this year’s float at the Come Out With Pride parade on Oct. 17 downtown.
The Pheromones — consisting of members Skip, Nic, Madi and Joanna — began while the members were students at UCF in 2022, playing parking garage shows for passersby. Now the band frequents venues like Conduit, Will’s Pub and The Abbey, but they’re getting back to their roots by getting on a flatbed truck.
“We played a festival with Maxwell Frost in December called MadSoul, and I feel like after that we developed a relationship with him. He’s been coming to our shows and stuff, which is really awesome,” Skip, bassist and backing vocalist, tells Orlando Weekly. “Every single year, he has a band on his float with him, and so this year, he reached out to us, and he asked if we were interested in that. I was like, ‘Of course we’re interested.’”
Madi had walked with Frost’s float a couple of years prior, so getting the upgrade from walking to performing was an exciting prospect. “I had walked two other years with him and his crew, but now I’m in the band on the float; that’s so cool.”
The band plans on performing a three-song repeating set with a surprise centerpiece for fans along the parade route: an unreleased song.
“We’re playing three songs on loop so that everyone gets to see a similar set. One of our songs is called ‘Push Back,’ which hasn’t been released yet. It’s kind of a protest anthem,” Skip says. “I think that sharing this kind of message with this audience will be well-received. We just want to support the people, and we feel glad that the people want to support us.”
“It feels fitting because Pride is a protest; it started as a protest, so the whole message of our song is to not let people [in power] win,” Madi adds. “To push back from social norms, push back against all of the evil going on, so I feel like it’s a very fitting song to be playing right now.”
The performance will be extra special, as Frost (a percussionist himself) will be joining the band a couple of times throughout the parade on the drums.
“I’ve never played with him, so I’m really excited,” Madi says. “I’ve seen lots of gigs he’s played. I think it’s really fun that he’s in the music scene separately from politics as well.”
For the band, it’s not just about performing with Frost, although that’s an incredible experience; it’s about being in the community and connecting with fans and Orlandoans at large.
“This gig kind of reminds me of playing at the UCF parking garages. We would always see cars drive by, people wave, or anyone just walking at UCF, so it kind of reminds me of that,” Nic says. “Ever since the beginning, I’ve always wanted to do something like this, be a part of a Pride parade or a parade in general, but obviously Pride is even better.”
Joanna put her excitement into just a simple phrase: “It’s cool.”
Those looking to join in on the fun can RSVP to march with Team Frost from 2 p.m.-5:30 p.m. at the Team Frost Mobilize Event Page. The exact route of the parade, a private event, was not yet available at press time, but those who RSVP will be given the details.
“As a band that really embraces counterculture, we’re really proud to be able to represent people this way through music,” Skip says. “Through women-made music, as well as through queer-made music.”
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This article appears in Oct. 14-20, 2026.